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Former UFC fighter Paige VanZant, who is now a free agent after recently finishing her final contractual obligation with the UFC, is reportedly having preliminary discussions with the United Kingdom based bare-knuckle fighting promotion BKFC. (h/t
Journalist Mike Russell was the first to report the news of the discussions between Paige VanZant and BKFC on Twitter.
“Hearing Paige VanZant is close to finalizing a deal with @bareknucklefc.”
Eric Kowal of MyMMANews.com, who also happens to work for BKFC, later clarified that although the promotion has been involved in preliminary talks with Paige VanZant, a deal is yet to be struck.
“There are talks, nothing close yet. I can confirm there are talks,” he added, replying to Russell. “I work for the company. Just asked [BKFC President] David [Feldman] about your Tweet cause he asked me 2 weeks ago for thoughts on possibly signing her. Today he said there are talks but nothing close. Like you said ‘we’ll see’ but this is latest.”
Paige VanZant's latest UFC contract expired at UFC 251, when she was submitted by Amanda Ribas in the first round of the main card scrap. Ahead of the fight, Paige VanZant told the South China Morning Post that she intended to test free agency following the fight against Ribas.
“There’s a lot of amazing organizations out there. If there wasn’t, I would never be testing free agency. I do honestly have a really good relationship with the UFC. I appreciate everything they’ve done for me. The hard thing is, other than my compensation, I am very happy with the UFC. So it’s not going to be as crazy as a negotiation process as a lot of people think. There’s a lot to talk about, but I think it’s going to be a fairly easy conversation. Change is very hard, but I’m looking for the best opportunity for my future and I don’t know what that is.”
